Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 4:2 | Date: April 21, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction to Isaiah

We are continuing our series on Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, and today, this evening, we begin with the prophecies in Isaiah. We will be here quite a while. Isaiah has a lot to say about the coming Messiah. Some marvelous passages—most famous, of course, Isaiah chapter 53. When we get there, we will take our time with that. Wonderful passage. Today we’ll be looking at Isaiah chapter four. We’ll begin there. And we’ll also take a couple of minutes to give just a broad introduction to Isaiah and his prophecy. And I thought rather than just throw all that data at you, I would give you a little handout to give you, for those of you who are interested to have that, just some highlights of Isaiah.

Let’s begin with Isaiah chapter four, and I’ll just for now read just verse two: “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a treasure it is to have your word; to look in this book and see how you have told us over and over through the centuries of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you would send to be our Savior. It fascinates us to see how you have made this promise, how you’ve unfolded that promise over the years, over the centuries, and then how that promise was so wonderfully fulfilled in Him. We pray that this evening and now again as we look back into the prophets of the Old Testament that you’ll open our eyes to see it and give us a new appreciation for Him. We pray through it, it would strengthen our trust as well. In His name we ask. Amen.

By way of background, Isaiah we find in the latter half of the 8th century BC. You read of that in the history of this in 2nd Kings, also in 2nd Chronicles. Regionally, as you have in your handout there, or internationally, the Assyrian Empire is the dominant power in the area. Domestically, we have Israel with two kingdoms now. Remember, for a couple of hundred years, Israel has been two nations: the Northern and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom is formerly a very prosperous time, but now that was in decline by the time we come to Isaiah. Isaiah, we’re talking somewhere around 740 BC, something like that. We’ll see more of that in a minute.

The northern kingdom had a long succession of only wicked kings, not one follower of the Lord who was ever faithful. And then that kingdom finally fell in 722 BC. It fell to the Assyrians. In the southern kingdom, we have some mixed kings there during this time period. We have two, at least two genuine reformers during that time: Hezekiah and Josiah. There were some others; even Manasseh for a time was converted, became a believer in the Lord and a follower, but it was very late. And so there wasn’t much to that to say after it—a very wicked king up until that point.

Major Events of the Period

We have two major events that mark the period. We have, first of all, the Assyrian invasion of Israel. This is the background to all of Isaiah 7 to 14. We find more of it later in the book of Isaiah as well. We find it in some of the other prophets. This is just the dominant event that’s happening. Isaiah 7 to 14, by the way, is that book of Emmanuel with the Emmanuel prophecy. And the whole backdrop of that is the Assyrian invasion that’s coming. And this was in response to an alliance that was established between the Northern Kingdom and the Kingdom of Syria, strengthening themselves against the Assyrian power. And they had asked Judah to join them in this alliance. Judah had refused to accompany them in that. And so now they were a threat to Judah, the southern kingdom as well.

And so Judah, now the southern kingdom, King Ahaz, invites Assyria to help strengthen them against the threat of the alliance to the north, and so of course they were glad to take them up on that, and the Assyrian army comes, conquers Syria, deports the people, and the Northern Kingdom finally falls. It annexes also some of the Southern Kingdom as well, and Jerusalem was miraculously spared during that, and that’s the next point of the major event of the period: Assyrian invasion of Judah. This would be 701 BC. Hezekiah had formed an anti-Assyrian alliance. Now at this time, Assyria responded and much of Judah was destroyed, but Jerusalem itself was miraculously spared from that—just a marvelous deliverance as God had promised.

About Isaiah Himself

About Isaiah himself, he’s the son of Amoz—not Amos, but Amoz, not the prophet. Tradition tells us that he was the nephew of King Amaziah, the brother of Amoz, and so he has some royal connections which gave him the ready access to the royal court that we see in Isaiah as well. He was married. Isaiah was married, had at least two sons. I’ve given their names for you there: Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. That is the longest word in the entire Bible: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. You want to practice it so you can say it like you know what you’re talking about.

Both of his sons’ names were given with some symbolic significance. I’ve given you the meanings of their names. Shear-jashub was “a remnant shall return.” Maher-shalal-hash-baz: “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil.” These had application to some of the prophecies that Isaiah had given. In fact, Isaiah 8 and verse 18 that I have noted for you there, Isaiah tells us that these were given for that purpose: “I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts.”

And in fact, Isaiah’s own name had prophetic significance as well. His name means “Yahweh is salvation.” And that is a huge, huge theme in Isaiah’s prophecy. Isaiah’s ministry was mainly to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He lived in Jerusalem. He also had prophecy to the Northern Kingdom and some dealings with them. He also prophesied to the nations as well. His prophetic ministry lasted about 60 years. That’s second in length only to Daniel. Daniel was somewhat longer than that; he was for a long time in Babylon serving there. He served under the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and even into the reign of Manasseh.

The apocryphal Assumption of Isaiah, the book, tells us that Isaiah—this is tradition, but that book tells us that Isaiah was sawn in half during the reign of Manasseh. That might be the point of reference in Hebrews 11:37, where he mentions the faithful who were sawn asunder, and so on. It’s probably a reference to Isaiah. Manasseh, as I mentioned earlier, eventually repented, but it was too late to be of real significance in the country in terms of reforms.

Isaiah’s reputation is—several of them here I’ve listed for you—he’s known as the King of the Prophets. His prophecy is not the longest, but it’s one of the longer ones, but it’s a massively influential and important prophecy, full of prophecies of Messiah that we’ll see. He’s also called the Evangelist of the Old Covenant, the Apostle Paul of the Old Testament. He’s known as a statesman. He is known for his literary abilities. He’s a magnificent poet. He’s a faithful man, a man of conviction, a man of unwavering trust in God. And he stands as something of a model of prophets.

His chronological place among the prophets I have for you there: Joel, Amos, Hosea, but we’re all earlier. Joel in particular, Amos and Hosea and Micah were younger contemporaries, just a little bit earlier than Isaiah and all the other prophets that you have that are after him. Isaiah’s prophecy, very much like we see so commonly in the Old Testament prophets, dominates with the twin themes of judgment and hope. Judgment and hope. But hope in Isaiah is so dominant that it’s referred to as the fifth gospel or the evangelist of the Old Testament or the evangelical prophet.

Divisions of Isaiah

And the prophecy itself, then I have a brief outline for you, two points to it for the divisions of Isaiah: chapters 1 to 39, chapters 40 to 66. These two major divisions of Isaiah: Isaiah 1 to 39 is known as the book of woe or the book of judgment because that is the dominant theme there, but don’t let that mislead you. There are many highlights there where we have prophecies of hope and salvation there as well. Like, for instance, the famous Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7. We have the promised son who will be born, Isaiah chapter nine; the branch of David, Isaiah chapter 11; others as well. So there are high points within that.

But overall, chapters one to 39, the message is the book of woe, and then Isaiah 40 to 66, the book of comfort or the book of salvation, because that note of hope dominates there. So you’ll notice then that we have in Isaiah 66 chapters: 39 and 27. And that parallels what we have in our Bibles: 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New. And many have noticed that. I don’t think we can credit inspiration for the chapter divisions, but it is an interesting observation. And many have referred to Isaiah then as a mini Bible. We have in the chapters 1 to 39 the Book of Woe, and that kind of parallels the Old Testament. And then 40 to 66, the Book of Comfort, kind of parallels the 27 books of the New Testament.

And in fact, there are even more parallels than that. The Book of Salvation, the Book of Comfort, Isaiah 40 to 66 begins with the John the Baptist announcement of him in chapter 40. That’s basically where the New Testament begins as well. The center of these prophecies becomes chapter 53 on the atonement. Of course, that’s the big point of the New Testament as well. And Isaiah ends with a glorious image of God coming, restoring all of creation. And that, of course, is how the New Testament concludes as well. So something of a mini Bible that we have in Isaiah’s prophecy.

Now coming to these early chapters of Isaiah, trying to bring that into focus, chapters one to 12, we have oracles concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And here we have both woes and promises that are given. Chapters one to five, we have the preface, and basically this is God’s indictment against Israel. And then chapters six through 12, we have the book of Emmanuel, the book of salvation, the prophecies there of the coming son.

All right, chapters 1 to 5, let’s try to look back at that very briefly. We have the opening prophecies. Chapter 1, we have God’s indictment against Judah for her apostasy. These are really hard-hitting passages where God indicts them. Chapter one in verse four: “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.” They’d forgotten God, and he outlines there and highlights in the ways that they have forgotten God and the corruption of their sins. And so in verses 11 and following, we find that Israel’s worship now, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, because of her sin, her worship has become repugnant to God. Why are you bringing me these sacrifices? I have no interest in these things. And of course, the sacrifices are what God himself had instituted. But in this case, it had become repugnant because it was coming with insincerity from people who went through motions and had no interest in obeying God.

And so in chapter 1 verses 24 and following we have judgment pronounced. These are basically the Levitical curses from the book of Leviticus chapter 26. We also find them in Deuteronomy 28 and following where God had warned Israel from the very beginning through Moses when the law was given that if you follow me, you will be blessed. If you disobey and you are unfaithful to the covenant, you will be cursed and you will find all kinds of calamity coming on you. And so throughout this passage, chapter one, the latter part of chapter one, there’s this tone of lament—both lament, God lamenting Israel’s sins, but also God pleading with Israel to come back to faithfulness to Him.

Maybe we can just look at it quickly, verses 16 and following: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” And here, Isaiah loves puns, and we see that in verses 19 and 20 here: “If you are willing and obedient, you’ll eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you’ll be eaten by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” So you can either obey and eat well, or you can disobey and be eaten—a warning of judgment.

Then chapters two and following, suddenly the tone changes. We’re talking about the kingdom that has been promised. In verses 1 to 4 of chapter 2, this will ring a bell for you. Let’s begin with verse 2: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills. And all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and he shall decide disputes for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Should ring a bell; I hope it does. That’s exact wording, almost exact wording of Micah chapter four, verses one to four that we saw recently together. It’s a poetic description of the kingdom of Christ and will be characterized by global peace.

Verses five and following then of chapter two, again we have a plea and a confrontation, an appeal and a warning against Israel because of her sins. Verses two and three: warning, sin will bring judgment. And then the following verses specify the sins. Verse six: there’s pagan associations and superstitions. There’s fortune tellers that they’re seeing. God has a particular hatred for that kind of thing. Verse seven: there’s self-indulgence. They’re living in opulence and they have endless military ventures where they’re going out and conquering peoples just to expand their own strength. Verse eight: there’s idolatry. Verse 18 again, the same. And so verse 10, verse 19 and 21, we have the same words: a warning to hide from God’s judgment, to hide from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty.

That brings us to chapter three, where we have a description of God’s judgment that will come for their disobedience. And that judgment is described in graphic terms. Verses one to three: God will remove food and water supply from them. He’ll also remove military and political leaders from them, that is effective ones. And then verse three is interesting. He warns Israel that they’ll be left with incompetent leaders. That’s verse three. Verse four: “I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them.” Gotta think, “Oh, the parallels.” That’s gotta be where God has brought us today: babies leading us. Verse 5, he warns there’ll be internal chaos. Brother will be rising against brother. There’ll be internal strife in the nation. All kinds of calamity is going to come for your disobedience if you continue down this road. And all of that climaxes in chapter 4 and verse 1. There’ll be so many men killed in battle that seven women will take hold of one man in that day saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.” Desperate for the protection and the provision of a husband.

All right, so all of this God will bring on Israel because of her sin. These are the warnings that God gives in these early chapters. Then we come to chapter four, verse two. And again, the tone changes and there’s a reversal. And here he tells us that the punishment will be followed by blessing. And here he comes again to describe the kingdom of God. And this is Isaiah’s first explicit mention of the Messiah.

The Branch of the Lord

Again, verse two: “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, a smoke and a shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory, there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.”

So we have here a description of the people of the kingdom. Verse three: they’re holy. They’re recorded for life in Jerusalem. Verse four: they’re cleansed from their sins. He’s washed away their filth. And then verses five and six: they’ll dwell safely in the presence of God. And here we have that Exodus imagery of God in the pillar and the cloud.

So let’s look at verse two now. This is the main verse here in this section. Their pride and honor—that is the center of attention of the people at that point—will be a branch that’s standing in their midst. Verse two again: “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.” A branch, obviously, botanical figure: a shoot, a sprout, a branch that has come. It doubtless means a branch from its imagery that is common in the prophets—a branch from the tree of David. We find it picked up elsewhere in Isaiah and other prophets as well.

But it probably works its way back to 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, where David reflects on the covenant that God made with him back in 2 Samuel 7. And David says in 2 Samuel 23: “For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure, for will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?” Will he not cause to prosper—now the NIV translates that, “will he not bring to fruition?” That is, the verb is to make it sprout, to make it grow. And here now in Isaiah 4 in verse 2, that verb—make it sprout, make it grow, bring it to fruition—is changed to a noun as a designation for David’s greater son who will come.

We find that again in chapter 11. If you want to glance there: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” So you can see the imagery there. We have a stump that has been cut down. And out of the stump, a shoot has begun to grow. New life has come. The tree is growing again. And so this branch of David is a shoot coming up out of the stump of Jesse that’s been cut down. The tree’s growing again. David’s greater son will come after all. And we have that imagery, as I mentioned, in other prophets. If you’d like to jot them down: Jeremiah 23 in verse 5, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” If you’d like the others: Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3 in verse 8, Zechariah 6, verse 12, where we have the branch of David who’s mentioned in all those.

Now in verse two here of chapter four, he says it’s the “branch of the Lord.” So the imagery has changed a bit. We’re expecting, if you’re familiar with the other prophecies, a branch of David or a branch from Jesse, Jesse’s roots or something like that, but a branch of the Lord—that is from Yahweh. So the emphasis here is on the deity of this branch. He’ll cleanse them from the filth of their sin. That’s a work that only God can do. So, branch of the Lord—who is the Lord, who is the Father, who is the Son, who is the Holy Spirit—His deity, but His humanity is not overlooked. Notice the parallelism: “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.” The fruit of the land is that He’ll come from Israel. He’ll be born of Israel’s stock. He’ll be of David’s line. So the Messiah is the branch of the Lord, but he hails from the land also, and he sprang out of Jacob.

This, by the way, as we keep running into this in these prophecies, it’s one of the mysteries of the Old Testament. We have the promise of God coming to help, God coming to establish His kingdom, God coming to rule, God coming to shepherd His people, and we have the promise of David’s son who will come and shepherd his people, and he will rule, and he’ll establish the kingdom of God. And not until we come to the New Testament do we see how those two tracks of prophecy finally converge in the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God-man. And we have that in this prophecy here: both as deity and as humanity highlighted. We saw it last time in Micah chapter five, where the Davidic son will come out of Bethlehem and his goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. He comes from eternity and he comes from Bethlehem both. And we’ll see it again and again and again through the book of Isaiah as well.

Now notice how he describes this branch, the Messiah: “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful.” You gotta love it. He’ll be the object of adoration. “In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious.” That is, his reign will bring to consummation all that God has promised. It’ll be like nothing the world has ever seen. The branch will be beautiful, an object of adoration, and he’ll be glorious. And it says, “he shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.” That is, he will be all that the residents of the city will boast of. They’ll boast of this branch. It is he and not they who established the kingdom of God. And in conversation and in song, both, they’ll say things like, “How blessed we are to be in God’s kingdom. And we owe it all to him.” He’s the pride and honor of the people.

So then here are God’s people. Verse three: they’re called holy. They’re recorded for life in Jerusalem. That is, they’re set apart to God. They’re enjoying eternal life. Verse 4: the filth of their sins is washed away. Their bloodstains are cleansed. Verses 5 and 6: “Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” Again, that’s Exodus terminology that you’re familiar with. God will reside with his people in his protective presence among them. He’ll be their shelter and he’ll be their refuge.

So we have this marvelous description of God’s kingdom finally come to earth. And the centerpiece of it all is this branch—the branch of the Lord who hails from the land itself, David’s greater son who has come to rule over God’s kingdom in the earth. Well, when does this happen? Well, we’ve seen that the kingdom of God—we see it over and over again in the way the New Testament unfolds these promises—the kingdom of God is now in its inaugurated form. Jesus spoke of that often; the apostles speak of it all the time. The kingdom is here, but it’s only in its inaugurated form. God’s people are not yet experiencing the fullness of the safety that’s described here. And then the fullness and the consummation of the kingdom is reserved for the return of Christ when he comes to bring it all to its climax.

So when is this fulfilled? Well, in a sense, it’s fulfilled now. Our sins have been forgiven. We live in the presence of the King. Revelation chapter seven—I won’t take time to go there, my time is about up already—but Revelation 7 verses 9 and following echo this passage in detail. And it’s a description of the kingdom in its fullness following the return of Christ. And it tells us there, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation.”

So all of this again is to remind us that we are a people who live in hope. We ought to let passages like this instill a hope within us and to enliven that hope as well, and to remind us—as we need reminding in days like this when it seems like our world is going to hell in a handbasket—we need passages like this to remind us that the world will not end in its present failure. It will not end in its present rebellion. God will fulfill his purpose to bless humanity; every promise will be kept. His king will come; God will raise him up and he will rule.

Presently, a kingdom has been inaugurated. We enjoy the forgiveness of sins. He’s washed away the filth of our sins and now he’s bringing us one by one into his kingdom to share in his reign. He shelters us in his care. But again, it’s only in an inaugurated sense. God’s kingdom is still contested. There’s still rebellion. It’s still opposed. The people of God often find themselves under opposition and under threat. The branch of the Lord, to use the language of verse two—the branch of the Lord is not recognized today as beautiful and glorious. But in that day, he will be.

I couldn’t help but think of some of Samuel Rutherford’s words as he describes this very thing. In that day, the glorious king will be there in his beauty and the world will see him without a veil between. Cleansed by the blood of Christ, we’ll dwell safely in his presence forever. And I suspect that we will sing then better than we have ever sung it before: “Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations, Son of God and Son of Man! Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be thine.”

Our Heavenly Father, how we delight in our glorious Savior. How our eyes long to see Him. How our hearts desire to praise Him and to be faithful to Him in every way. Lord, we long for that day when all the ruin, all the degeneracy and evil, all the suffering and misery of this world because of sin shall be put away. And Jesus will reign openly, wonderfully, loved and adored by His people forever and ever. What a grand day that will be. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.